Electrical connectors are widely used to form a junction between one or more conductor wires which usually have mating terminals attached to the ends of the wires that are to be joined. In automotive applications particularly, connectors are generally fabricated from an insulating material such as plastic and are designed not only to insulate the joined mating terminals but also to protect the joined terminals from liquid that may be sprayed upon the connectors.
The wiring of a motor vehicle progresses from the electrical source, through mated terminal pairs, and continues to a controlled load such as an electrical component. For servicing reasons connectors are designed to be reusable numerous times in order to facilitate the diagnosing and replacing of faulty electrical components and for checking electrical continuity of a wire segment in an electrical wiring assembly of a motor vehicle. In the course of diagnosing an electrical malfunction in a wire assembly, the diagnostician must disconnect the connector and take measurements from the terminals located in the now-opened connector. By disconnecting the terminals, any potential historical evidence of an electrical fault within the connector may be destroyed, hence there is a need for a connector which lends itself to diagnostics without first having to be disassembled.